Author Note
Recently I had a quick word with Lord Asmodeus over pvt messaging. Naturally I can't say exactly what we discussed, but the essence was that my stories have gone from dark to light. Example: Overlord and Emperor Gothic are very different from Cyborg Gothic and DC Gothic.
What do you guys think? Are the Gothics becoming too 'heroic' making them like so many Self Inserts, or is that simply what people want to read about?
Let me know your thoughts.
Have I turned to the lightside?
DC Gothic – Red-X 2
Dark Nights 1
The Iceberg Lounge – Gotham City.
Until the offer had been made I never would have imagined that anything would ever compel me to once more visit Gotham City, but I'd not anticipated that the government organisation known as CADMUS would ever try to hire me. I had worried that one day Amanda Waller might recruit me into the Suicide Squad, but this wasn't like that, she was willing to pay me for my services and no threats had been made, not yet anyway.
Unlike normal I was dressed very fancy, as this was a fancy place, I felt not unlike James Bond right now. This made sense as The Iceberg Lounge was owned by a super villain, and there was even someone on stage singing a song that would have sounded great near the start of a Bond movie. Sadly for me I was not 007, and I didn't have the backing of M16, so I felt very vulnerable right now.
The person I was here to met was not Amanda Waller, he was just some guy in a suit, an agent of hers no doubt. He was waiting for me at a table near the middle of the club, so when I sat down at the table I got a great view of the polar bears, but what really caught my eye were the waitresses. Judging by what they were wearing the crime lord known as the Penguin was a leg man.
"Mr X?" questioned the agent.
Had this guy known my real name I was sure he would have used it, but there were advantages to being from another reality, my paperwork hadn't come with me and thanks to the wish along with the warding magic I employed, no one could connect my face to Red-X.
This agent could see me, but he wouldn't be able to record my image in any way. Also I was wearing sunglasses to help hide my face, despite the fact that I was indoors and it was night time.
"Let's just get down to business" I said.
My contact had ordered me a drink, but wisely I didn't touch it in case it was poisoned, or contained something that would allow me to be tracked, or even just in case the glass was used to collect my finger prints.
"Very well" replied the CADMUS minion "My employer has need of your groups special services".
I resisted the urge to say: well duh
"We need you to steal someone rather than something" I was then told "and getting to her will not be easy".
My speciality was corporate espionage, most of what I stole from one company went to another, and upon other occasions I stole from some tech firm for a private individual. The rest of the time I took things for myself.
Lately I'd not been taking much of anything. In fact recently I'd stopped a crime spree, and this went against my nature. Sure I was no Saturday morning cartoon villain with dreams of destroying or ruling the world, but nor was I a hero. I was a bad guy, and it was about time I got back to doing what I did best.
"And who is she?" I asked.
A folder was passed to me, and it was odd to be given a paper file as normally I dealt with electronic information.
Dr. Harleen Frances Quinzel, M.D.
Was the name on the outside of the folder, and I didn't need to look inside to learn about her. I knew her as Harley Quinn, the sidekick/lover of the Joker. Given that she was connected the Clown Prince of Crime I felt it unwise to take this job, however I knew it was also unwise to get on the bad side of CADMUS.
The file told me that years ago Dr. Harleen Quinzel had been a psychiatric intern at Arkham Asylum, which I'd already known, what I hadn't know was that she had been a model student in High School. In addition to receiving high grades, she had been an award winning gymnast, and had gotten a scholarship due her talent, and that had been what had allowed to study at University.
According to the file while researching the lunatics at Arkham, she became fascinated with one particular inmate. She'd pleaded with the doctors at Arkham for three months before she'd been allow to try to treat the Joker. After he had gained her sympathies during their sessions, he had seduced her, causing her to fall madly in love with him and she had aided an escape from the asylum.
Now she was locked up in the same place she had used to work, and the Joker wasn't helping to break her out because she'd been in there for the last six months.
"Dr. Quinzel will be difficult to extract from Arkham Asylum" the agent said as I leafed through some recent photos "But I'm sure your team can handle it".
Breaking into Arkham would be the easy part, as I could simply teleport inside, the tricky parts would be getting her out and the RV point.
"It won't be easy, not with a deadline" I commented.
Given the rush I could only assume that Waller wanted Quinn for an urgent mission, one with a very low chance for survival. Which was not that kind of thing the Shadow Squad was qualified to do, but I got the horrible feeling that I failed one of us would be sent off to die.
"This will help motivate you" said the government man.
He slipped me a piece of paper, and it had a number written upon on it. There were a lot of zeroes.
"Its an good incentive" I agreed.
Even spilt with the rest of the Shadow Squad there was still enough here to send my yet unborn daughter to somewhere like Yale or Oxford for her higher education. It was hell of carrot, and of course while I couldn't see it I knew there was a stick too.
"See you at the RV point" I said before getting up.
Tomorrow night I had to break Harley Quinn, out of Arkham Asylum and get past the Batman, this was going to take a lot of planning.
(Line Break)
Arkham Asylum – Gotham City
There were dark clouds hovering over Arkham Asylum which made it hard to see the horrid place and where I was going, at least until I switched to night vision. But even then I had to stop my bike because the road was blocked by a guard post.
I cut the engine of the X-cycle, and spent a moment wondering why I just didn't fly the bike directly into the Asylum. Because I could do that.
This was the third X-cycle, I'd lost the first one and the second had been destroyed by Raven when she had rammed it with a school bus. I didn't want to risk losing yet another cycle.
I decided then that the bike would stay here outside the Asylum until I needed it, I planned to teleport onto the roof of Arkham, and when I did just that I got to see the place up close.
Arkham was a large place, it was more of a small village than a prison complex even with all the walls and the barbed wire fences.
The main gate, which was impressive in both scale and design, for some reason had two disturbing statues to either side of it, and was each holding a lit torch. It really ramped up the creep factor.
There were also towers with spotlights on them that were used by guards to keep an eye on the courtyard, which seemed odd to me as they could have just put some proper lighting up all over the grounds, even some street lamps would have helped.
As I looked around some more I thought back to the planning session I'd had with the rest of the Shadow Squad earlier today. Getting blue prints for this place had been easy, making the plan hadn't been.
My original idea had been to use Kyd's strange powers, I'd figured he could appear in Harely's cell and then take her out with no trouble, but for some reason he either couldn't or wouldn't, and he hadn't been able to explain why. He couldn't talk and as it turned out he couldn't or wouldn't read and write either. The guy was a total mystery.
So it was up to me. I wasn't worried about getting passed the cameras as I simply wouldn't show up on any screens thanks to my warding magic, and I had a shirt for Harley to wear on the way out that were make her unseen on anything electronic, this would help on the way out.
The guards were what I had to worry about. They weren't a threat to me, but if they raised the alarm then that would summon the Batman.
To deal with I had set up some diversions, however he would soon discover that 911 calls and the alert at Wayne tech were all red herrings. They had been triggered by Gizmo's use of hacking, so there were crooks to for to go and beat up.
The tiny terror had also gotten me the number of Quinn's cell and even the guard's patrol schedule, somehow. So I knew that was now was the time to make my move.
To my surprise the cells were not made of stone or bars they were in fact metal with the front being some sort of transparent material, not glass. This allowed me to see the inmates, but they couldn't see me as I was currently using my cloaking device.
I stopped in front of Harley's cell and beneath my mask my eyes widend as I saw a blond girl with her hair in twin pigtails, doing a hand stand while spreading her legs. She made my libido hum without even trying.
With some effort I was able to act rather than simply stare. I dropped my cloak and tapped on the glass.
"Who are you?" Quinn inquired.
My mouth felt oddly dry.
"Name's Red-X" I said, hoping I sounded cool "and I'm here to bust you out so keep your voice down".
I then teleported inside the cell.
"Hi, X!" Harley shouted out
I winced as she shouted, but I didn't let that stop me from getting on with things.
"Take off that jump suit and put this on" I ordered while handing her the top that had the wards sown into it "Be quick about it".
I didn't see her undress as I was too busy making it look as if she was sleeping under the covers. I had to do this because as soon as she put the shirt on anyone looking through the cameras would stop seeing here. There would be a glitch and then they would see what looked be Harley under the covers.
"Did my Puddin send you?" the crazy lady then asked.
I shook my head and watched Harley go from smiley happy face to frowny mad face very fast. Although this wasn't as scary as it looked because she was only wearing the top I'd given her a pair of panties and some socks. She looked adorable rather than scary.
"Oh that no good rotten bastard" she swore "He promised he'd break me out, he did, and its been six months. I can't believe I waited for him, he's really done it this time!".
Harley and her Puddin' had a complex relationship to say the least. The Joker was abusive and he manipulated Harley into doing bad things all the time, but he also seemed to have some genuine affection towards her. However when the verbally and physical abuse weren't enough the Joker attempted to kill her.
Sadly there are some women who would put up with that sort of thing, and even forgive the abusive partner, which Harley often did, but every now and again Quinn also tried to kill the Joker.
I was getting the sense that this was one of those times. Which was good because if the Clown Prince turned up I might need help killing him
"Put this belt on and then walk into the corridor" I ordered before teleporting out of the cell "Trust me it will work".
Because she was odd she skipped right through the transparent material rather than walk, she was able to do that because the belt contained the phasing device that had once belonged to Pink-X.
"So who does want to bust me out?" Quinn questioned me as we made our way down the poorly lit corridor "Or are you just a fan?".
Most of my attention was focused on looking for guards, but I was still able to answer that question.
"CADMUS wants you for a...".
I never got to finish as somehow Harley lifted me off the ground in a hug. Rather than struggle my brain reminded me of something I had read in her file. Harley Quinn was actually a low level meta human, she didn't have fancy powers like being able to fire laser beams out of her eyes, but she was stronger, faster and more durable than a normal human.
"Oh yes another mission" she said gleefully "They are always so much fun, and I have these new acid etched playing cards I want to try out".
I was really glad I had not been selected for that mission.
"Come on" I said once she had put me down "The chopper is only going to be at the RV point for the next three hours",
Hearing this did not make the mad woman happy
"But I need ta get all my stuff before we go" Harley stated
I had to put my foot down at this point.
"There's no time" I said.
My efforts were in vain.
"But I want my stuff!" she yelled in a childish way.
As well as felling annoyed I was also surprised that none of the guards came to find out why there was so much noise, but this was a mad house so people shouting out in the middle of the night wasn't so odd.
"Listen, we don't have the time to drive around Gotham, looking for your stuff" I argued
After all this job had a deadline.
"Hey! We don't hafta go ridden around all of Gotham to find my stuff" she told me "Its all right here, they keep my things in storage for me whenever I pop back for a visit".
For a moment I wondered how anyone could be foolish enough to keep the weapons of psychopaths and sociopaths in the same building as those crazy people. This was not well thought out.
But I soon had to end that trail of thought as Harley was skipping down the corridor. I had to stay with her and make sure she got out or I might get into big trouble.
"This is going to be a nightmare" I muttered to myself.
(Line Break)
Streets – Gotham City
Harley screamed for joy as I drove the bike through the streets of Gotham, the blond was now dressed in her trademark red and black outfit, and while it covered everything up it was tight enough to show her figure and the fabric was thin enough that even through my Red-X suit I could feel her nipples poking my back, which meant she was really, really happy.
"Woo hoo! I love a guy with a sweet hog!" Harley said with a laugh.
She spoke some more but my attention was spilt between driving and making sure we were following the route the GPS suggested, it was important for us to get out of town as quickly as possible.
"Ugh. I hate it when guys follow me!" she the complained "Stalking is so not sexy!".
I turned my head, expecting to see either the Batman in his car, or the GPD (Gotham Police Department). Only it was neither of those things, we were being chased by a clown car, an actual clown car.
"Its Mr Jay" Quinn reported "He must have put a tag on my stuff so he'd know if I broke out".
That was a good of an explanation as any.
"You keep driving" Quinn urged "I'll deal with that bastard".
From somewhere I didn't want to know about, she produced a pistol with a comically long barrel. I had to keep an eye on the road I didn't see her aim, but I did hear a bang, only it was the wrong kind of bang.
"Oopsie… wrong gun…" Harley told me.
Again I couldn't see what she was doing, but I could feel her moving about so I figured she was looking for a real weapon. I would have offered her mine, but now the police were here so my hands were busy.
"Oh there's my rocket launcher!" Quinn yelled.
This time the bang was right, only when I turned my head I saw that she'd hit a police car instead. This didn't help with the Joker and his goons, who were now taking pot shots at us, but it did make the cops pull back.
"Engage autopilot" I instructed the bike
Everything was happening to fast for even my reactions to deal with, and not having to drive left me free to deal with the Clown Prince of Crime. I'd planned for this moment well in advance, so I knew what to do.
"Do not get off this bike" I said to Harley very firmly "My squad is waiting for you near the RV, they will cover your escape so do not get off this bike until they tell you to".
Before she could reply I had teleported on to roof of the clown car, which wasn't much of a roof, and a second later I took the sickle off my belt. It grew into something like the scythe that Reaper had used only now the handle was straighter as was the blade, also it was smaller so I could use it with one hand.
Which I did when one of Joker's goons got part way out of the car and aimed an uzi at me, I cut the gun in half and took a few fingers too judging by the screaming. The clown ended up on the road, and almost got run over by the Batmobile as it swerved onto the road behind us
"Fuster Cluck!" I swore.
I now knew that I had mere seconds to kill the Joker, this was my chance to end the mad man's existence so I attempted to drive the blade of my magical weapon into the clown car.
Perhaps I would have killed the Joker had a body not rammed into me and knocked me off the car, only I didn't hit the road it was like I'd been hit by a swinging pendulum, and I soon found myself on top a building.
Also I wasn't alone.
The Batman was up here with me.